Silicon breast implants may heighten the risk of lymphoma

Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 5: Silicon breasts, one of the most touted prosthesis used to enlarge the size of a woman's breasts may actually increase the risk of developing a rare form of lymphoma - cancerdefine of the lymph system.

Fortunately, the potentially life-threatening condition afflicts less than 0.3 per 100,000 women with breasts implants each year, a Dutch research highlights.

The condition known as anaplastic large T-cell lymphoma (ALCL) of the breast is a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma typically referred to as ‘a group of hematologic cancers which encompass any lymphoma’.

For the study, researchers at the Netherlands Cancerdefine Institute in Amsterdam enrolled 11 patients with ALCL, all diagnosed for lymphoma in the breast between 1990 and 2006.

Of the 11 patients, zeroed in from a Dutch population of 8 million women searched over a span 17 years, five had undergone bilateral silicone breast implants primarily for cosmetic reasons.

Compared to the 6 women who were diagnosed with other forms of lymphoma in the breast, women with breast implants had an 18 times higher risk for developing ALCL of the breast.

"The odds ratio for ALCL in the breast associated with silicone breast prosthesis placed for cosmetic reasons was 18.2," the researchers marked.

Though these findings do not strongly link silicon breast implants to non-Hodgkin lymphoma, researchers recommend a further evaluation of breast implantdefine-related lymphoma given the fact that ‘silicone is immunogenic’.

The findings of the study feature in the November 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Breast implants is one of the most commonly performed cosmetic surgical procedure in the United States with over 329,000 women going under the knife annually. They can be divided into two types on the basis of filling used: saline-filled and silicone-gel-filled implants.

While saline implants have a sterile saline liquid filling up the silicone elastomer shell, the silicone gel implants have a viscous silicone gel in their silicone shell. The latter is a more preferred bet because of the natural feel offered by the implant.